Families must stand above government’s unchecked power

The Heritage Foundation’s official X account posted its definition of socialism on Oct. 30, 2026. Published at 23:02 UTC, the statement said socialism means that “the government makes every decision and cannot be challenged”¹.

“the government makes every decision and cannot be challenged”

The organization sets aside the idea of shared responsibility before it states its own meaning for the word, and that first line is the part of the post most easily lost in a retelling. The post on the @Heritage account carries an attached photo on X¹.

That is Heritage’s characterization; New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani offered a different account in an interview with comedian Theo Von, describing socialism as government’s responsibility to provide what people need for a dignified life. Mamdani named housing, child care and public transit as examples, and described socialism as extending democracy beyond the ballot box into daily life².

His chosen test case is the family budget: he said the country is comfortable with families paying $20,000 a year for early childhood education before kindergarten. He also cited a study that a family of three in New York City needs to make $330,000 a year to afford child care³. His administration and Gov. Kathy Hochul are rolling out the city’s 2-K program, where more than 5,700 families applied for just over 2,000 seats⁴.

One critic of Mamdani’s definition put the objection in a single line: “Some bureaucrat gets to decide what you need and what a dignified life is. I’d rather have no government at all.”² Those competing definitions put a family’s relationship with government at the heart of the debate: who decides what a household needs, and who gets to challenge that decision?

The post came a month after the Oct. 1 episode of Theo Von's podcast in which New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani gave his own definition of the word.

The family is prior to government, not subject to it. Government can serve families, but it must not displace parents as the leading authorities in their children’s lives. That principle matters whenever political leaders argue over the reach of government: families must retain the authority to shape their homes and raise their children.

Sources

1. @Heritage on X, 2026-10-30: Socialism doesn’t mean common ownership and shared responsibility. It means that the government makes every decision and cannot be challenged. https://x.com/Heritage/status/2116304702547566674/photo/1, 2026-10-30
2. Theo Von asks Mamdani to define socialism — and critics fire back at his response
3. ‘It is the government’s job to deliver’: Zohran Mamdani defines ‘socialism’ for Theo Von
4. NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani Appeared on Theo Von’s podcast, This Past Weekend